The Oklahoma Sooners secured the two seed in the Big 12 conference tournament by finishing their season with wins over TCU and West Virginia.

Three Sooners were named to all-Big 12 teams, and Tyler Neal was awarded sixth man of the year. Sophomore Buddy Hield was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team; senior Cameron Clark was a third-team pick, and Ryan Spangler earned honorable mention all-Big 12.

Hield and company do not know who they will face in the second round of the Big 12 tournament yet because they receive a bye. Below we’ll take a look at the Sooners’ potential matchup and how that could affect the Sooners’ seed in the NCAA tournament.

Quarterfinals:

The Sooners will face the winner of Baylor and TCU. The Bears are strong favorites in that game, and they would pose a strong challenge for the Sooners. Twice this season, the Sooners beat the Bears, but BU was highly competitive when the game was played in Waco.

In the February 8 meeting between BU and OU, Isaiah Cousins scored a game-high 21 points as he and Hield combined to hit eight 3-pointers.

A win against the Bears would help the Sooners’ RPI because the Bears are still a top-40 RPI team despite their 10 losses. The key stat to watch if the Sooners face the Bears is 3-point percentage. Baylor led the conference in 3-point shooting while the Sooners were third. If either team establishes a significant advantage from behind the arc, it could swing the game in their favor.

If the Sooners are able to defeat either TCU or Baylor, they would play the winner of Texas against West Virginia, the three and six seed.

The Sooners swept their Red River rival, Texas, but they lost once to West Virginia in Morgantown. A win against either West Virginia or Texas would likely assure the Sooners a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. For seeding purposes, the Sooners would rather face, and defeat, the Longhorns who currently have an RPI of 26.

Texas led the Big 12 in rebounding and field goal percentage defense. When the Longhorns won nine out of 10 games at one point in their Big 12 schedule, Jonathan Holmes was rebounding and scoring efficiently. Holmes did not play in Texas’ regular season finale against TCU because of an ailing knee. His health is vital for Texas.

Meanwhile, West Virginia found success this year by playing the type of scrappy defense for which Bob Huggins’ teams are known. The Mountaineers finished second in the Big 12 in turnover margin and finished third in steals. The Sooners, who averaged 11 turnovers per game, would have to take care of the basketball to beat the Mountaineers.

The championship:

Just making the Big 12 championship game would likely ensure the Sooners at least a three or four seed in the NCAA tournament, and winning the tournament would further cement OU as one of the hottest teams in America. If the Sooners win the conference tournament, they will have won six straight games.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi currently projects the Sooners as a five seed, and he projects a matchup against Southern Miss for OU in the “second round” of the NCAA tournament.

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